RICHARDS 


Life  and  Character  of  John  Dicinson 


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PAPERS    OF  THE   HISTORICAL    SOCIETY  OF  DELAWARE. 

XXX. 

THE 

LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 


JOHN    DICKINSON 


BY 


ROBERT   H.  RICHARDS.  ESQ. 


Ktvir/  hefore  the  Historical  Society  of  Delaware,  May  3i,  zgoo. 


mi:  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  OF  DKLA  \\ARI: 

WILMINGTON. 
I9OI. 


JOHN    DICKINSON. 

1732-1808. 


PAPERS   OF  THE  HISTORICAL   SOCIETY  OF  DELAWARE, 

XXX. 


THE 

LLIFE  AND  CHARACTER 

OF 

JOHN    DICKINSON 


BY 

ROBERT  H.  RICHARDS,  ESQ. 


Read  before  the  Historical  Society  of  Delaware,  May  zi,  igoo. 


THE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  OF  DELAWARE, 

WILMINGTON. 
1901. 


PRESS  OF  J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  COMPANY,  PHILADELPHIA. 


THE    LIFE   AND    CHARACTER 

OF 

JOHN  DICKINSON. 


THE  name  of  Dickinson,  while  not  a  very  common  one, 
has  been  well  known  in  various  parts  of  the  country  for 
several  generations.  There  are  in  this  country  two  gen- 
eral branches  of  the  family,  one  of  which  is  found  to  have 
first  appeared  in  the  New  England  States  and  the  mem- 
bers of  which  were  Presbyterians,  and  the  other  immi- 
grated to  the  Middle  and  Southern  States. 

Those  who  bear  the  name  in  the  Middle  and  Southern 
States  are  descended  from  Charles  Dickinson,  who  died 
in  London  in  1653,  leaving  three  sons,  all  of  whom  were 
Quakers.  In  1654  these  sons  emigrated  to  Virginia  to 
escape  imprisonment  at  home  as  Non-conformists. 

There  is  a  legendary  account  of  the  renown  achieved 
by  the  English  ancestors  of  the  family  as  soldiers,  but  of 
this  there  appears  to  be  no  authentic  record.  It  is  im- 
portant perhaps  for  us  to  know,  however,  that  this  family 
belonged  to  that  middle  class  of  English  society  which, 
we  may  safely  say,  has  had  more  to  do  with  shaping 
the  destinies  of  England  in  modern  times  than  any  other. 

3 


4  LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF  JOHN  DICKINSON. 

The  family  coat  of  arms  consisted  of  a  shield  divided 
horizontally  by  a  single  bar,  above  and  below  which  a 
lion,  and  at  the  top  of  the  shield  a  visored  helmet  sur- 
mounted by  a  lion  rampant.  The  motto  was  esse  quam 
videri,  "  to  be  rather  than  to  seem ;"  and  a  careful  study 
of  the  life  of  John  Dickinson  impels  one  to  the  belief 
either  that  the  selection  of  this  motto  by  the  Dickinson 
family  must  have  been  the  result  of  some  deep-rooted, 
uneradicable  family  characteristic,  or  that  John  Dickinson 
made  it  the  motto  of  his  life. 

Of  the  three  brothers  to  whom  I  have  referred,  Walter, 
the  immediate  ancestor  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  re- 
moved in  1659  to  Talbot  County,  on  the  Eastern  shore 
of  Maryland.  He  there  purchased  a  plantation,  which 
he  called  "  Crosia-dore,"  on  the  shores  of  the  Choptank 
River,  and  this  estate,  from  the  day  of  its  settlement  until 
the  present  hour, — a  period  of  over  two  centuries  and  a 
half, — has  always  been  the  home  of  the  same  Dickinson 
family,  the  present  owner  and  occupant  being  in  the  direct 
line  of  descent  from  the  original  proprietor. 

At  Crosia-dore,  on  the  8th  of  November,  1732,  John 
Dickinson  was  born.  He  was  the  second  son  of  Samuel 
Dickinson,  the  grandson  of  the  first  proprietor  of  the 
estate,  and  of  Mary  Cadwalader,  his  second  wife,  of  Phila- 
delphia. 

Samuel  Dickinson  was  bred  to  the  law,  but,  at  the  time 
of  the  birth  of  his  son  John,  was  living  upon  his  Maryland 
estate  the  life  of  a  country  gentleman. 

In  1740  Samuel  Dickinson  removed  to  Kent  County, 


LIFE  AND    CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON.  5 

Delaware,  where  he  purchased  an  estate  of  about  one  thou- 
sand three  hundred  acres  near  Dover.  It  is  thought  that 
this  change  of  residence  was  made  because  of  the  fact  that 
Dover  furnished  better  educational  advantages  than  the 
locality  in  which  Samuel  Dickinson  was  living.  At  this 
day  the  descendants  of  Samuel  Dickinson  are  among  the 
largest  land  owners  in  Kent  County,  possessing  more  than 
three  thousand  acres.* 

At  Dover,  Samuel  Dickinson,  who  shortly  after  his  re- 
moval was  appointed  first  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas,  secured  the  services  of  William  Killen,  a  young 
Irishman,  as  a  tutor  for  his  son  John. 

We  know  very  little  about  William  Killen,  but  the  fact 
that  he  subsequently  became  the  Chief  Justice  and  after- 
wards Chancellor  of  Delaware  is  sufficient  testimony  of 
his  ability. 

In  those  days  the  prevalent  idea  of  an  education  em- 
braced little  more  than  a  thorough  knowledge  of  classical 
literature.  "  It  is  certainly  not  a  little  remarkable  in  the 
history  of  teaching,"  says  Dr.  Stille,  "  that,  under  the  in- 
struction of  this  young  Irishman,  himself  but  fifteen  years 
of  age  when  he  went  to  Dover,  Dickinson  should  not  only 
have  early  imbibed  a  love  of  classical  literature,  but  that 
his  studies  should  have  taught  him  that  comprehensiveness 
of  view  and  those  forms  of  expression  which  are  charac- 
teristic of  the  ancient  classical  authors.  If  there  is  any 
truth  in  the  saying,  '  The  style  is  the  man/  it  was  true  of 

*  The  last  statement  is  taken  from  Scharf's  "  History  of  Delaware." 


6  LIFE  AND   CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON. 

Dickinson.  It  would  be  difficult  to  over-estimate  the  power 
which  this  style,  derived  from  those  who  wrote  in  what 
is  erroneously  called  a  dead  language,  enabled  him  to  exer- 
cise in  the  political  controversies  in  which  he  was  en- 
gaged." 

In  1750,  when  John  Dickinson  was  eighteen  years  old, 
he  was  entered  as  a  student  of  the  law  in  the  office  of  John 
Moland,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia,  one  of  the  leading  lawyers 
in  that  city  and  King's  Attorney  in  Pennsylvania.  We 
may  pause  here  to  observe  that  the  connotation  of  the 
term  "  student  of  the  law"  was  vastly  different  in  those 
days  from  now.  The  industry  and  luminous  ability  of 
Mr.  Justice  Blackstone  had  not  yet  blazed  the  way  into 
the  intricate  mazes  of  the  common  law,  but  the  road  to 
this  "  perfection  of  human  reason"  led  through  the  austere 
portals  of  the  venerable  Coke's  Commentaries  upon  Lit- 
tleton, and  the  Year-Books. 

After  three  years  in  Philadelphia,  Mr.  Dickinson  pre- 
vailed upon  his  father  to  send  him  to  England,  as  was 
customary  in  those  days  with  men  of  means,  to  finish  his 
legal  education  at  the  Temple.  He  remained  here  at  the 
Middle  Temple  for  four  years,  having  as  fellow-students 
such  men  as  Lord  Thurlow,  afterwards  Lord  Chancellor; 
Kenyon,  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench;  John 
Hill,  afterwards  Earl  of  Hillsborough,  and  William  Cow- 
per,  the  poet. 

Let  me  refer  here  to  some  statistics  furnished  by  the 
Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania.  I  stated  above  that 
it  was  customary  before  the  Revolution  for  young  men 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON.  j 

who  contemplated  practising  the  profession  of  the  law  to 
complete  their  studies  in  England,  at  the  fountain-head 
of  the  common  law.  This  statement  is  subject  to  sectional 
restriction,  for  an  investigation  has  shown  that  this  cus- 
tom was  almost  exclusively  confined  to  the  Middle  and 
Southern  States;  the  number  of  young  men  educated  in 
England  increasing  as  we  go  farther  south;  South  Caro- 
lina possessing  the  greatest  number,  and  the  New  England 
States  almost  none.  We  shall  see,  I  think,  the  effect  of 
this  hereafter. 

Mr.  Dickinson  returned  to  Philadelphia  and  began  to 
practise  his  profession  in  1757.  Of  him  as  a  lawyer  we 
know  comparatively  little.  In  a  letter  written  to  his  mother 
shortly  after  he  began  to  practise,  he  urges  her  to  come 
to  Philadelphia,  says  that  he  is  busy,  and  that  "  the  money 
is  flowing  in."  In  the  first  volume  of  Dallas's  Reports  we 
find  that  there  are  three  cases  mentioned  which  Mr.  Dick- 
inson argued  in  the  Supreme  Court  in  1760.  One  of  these 
was  a  case  of  "  foreign  attachment;"  the  second  an  eject- 
ment case,  and  the  third  a  question  of  criminal  procedure. 
William  Rawle,  the  elder,  speaking  of  Dickinson  as  a  law- 
yer, says,  "  He  possessed  considerable  fluency,  with  a 
sweetness  of  tone  and  agreeable  modulation  of  voice,  not 
well  calculated,  however,  for  a  large  audience.  His  law 
knowledge  was  respectable,  although  not  remarkably  ex- 
tensive, for  his  attention  was  directed  to  historical  and 
political  studies.  Wholly  engaged  in  public  life,  he  left 
the  bar  soon  after  the  commencement  of  the  American 
Revolution."  Whatever  may  have  been  the  depths  of  his 


8  LIFE  AND   CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON. 

legal  learning,  it  is  quite  certain  that  his  early  prominence 
in  public  life  was  largely  due  to  the  reputation  he  had 
gained  as  a  lawyer. 

In  October,  1760,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  As- 
sembly of  the  "  Lower  Counties,"  as  Delaware  was  then 
called,  and  upon  taking  his  seat  was  made  Speaker  of  that 
body. 

In  1762  he  was  chosen  a  member  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Assembly  from  the  city  of  Philadelphia.  He  writes  to  his 
friend,  George  Read,  concerning  this  election,  in  the  fol- 
lowing noble  strain :  "  I  flatter  myself  that  I  came  in  with 
the  approval  of  all  good  men.  I  confess  that  I  should 
like  to  make  an  immense  bustle  in  the  world,  if  it  could  be 
done  by  virtuous  actions;  but  as  there  is  no  probability 
in  that,  I  am  content  if  I  can  live  innocent  and  beloved 
by  those  I  love."  The  question  which  almost  exclusively 
occupied  the  attention  of  the  Pennsylvania  Assembly  at 
the  time  of  Dickinson's  entrance  into  it  was  whether  or 
not  the  Assembly  on  behalf  of  the  people  should  petition 
the  king  to  abrogate  the  Proprietary  Charter  and  take  the 
government  of  the  province  into  his  own  hands.  Mr. 
Dickinson  opposed  this  measure,  and  led  the  fight  for  the 
opposition ;  against  him  were  Joseph  Gallaway,  the  great- 
est lawyer  of  his  time  in  Pennsylvania,  and  Benjamin 
Franklin,  the  apostle  of  common  sense,  already  loaded  with 
honors  and  degrees  by  all  the  universities  of  Europe. 
Dickinson  was  completely  successful. 

Now  begins  Dickinson's  career  in  that  field  in  which 
he  was  most  successful,  and  in  which  he  stands  without 


LIFE  AND    CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON.  g 

a  peer,  as  the  pensman  of  the  Revolution.  We  know  of 
no  man  in  history  who,  by  his  pen,  through  the  means 
of  pamphleteering,  exercised  a  greater  influence  upon  the 
thought,  action,  and  policies  of  his  time  than  did  John 
Dickinson.  In  1765,  during  the  discussion  in  Parliament 
of  the  "  Stamp  Act,"  he  printed  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  The 
Late  Regulations  respecting  the  British  Colonies  on  the 
Continent  of  America  considered."  It  is  impossible  to 
consider  the  contents  of  each  of  these  numerous  pamphlets 
or  their  influence  upon  events,  and  we  can  do  scarcely 
more  than  enumerate  them.  Dickinson  was  a  member 
of  the  Stamp  Act  Congress,  and  in  that  body  a  mighty 
opponent  of  the  right  of  the  English  Parliament  to  tax 
the  colonies  for  revenue  without  their  consent. 

On  the  2d  of  December,  1767,  in  the  Pennsylvania 
Chronicle,  under  date  of  November  7,  the  anniversary 
of  the  day  upon  which  William  of  Orange  had  landed  in 
England,  a  day  of  ill-omen  to  those  who,  the  colonists 
contended,  were  governing  them  in  the  same  arbitrary 
manner  as  that  in  which  James  II.  had  governed  their 
forefathers,  there  appeared  the  first  of  that  great  series 
known  as  the  "  Farmer's  Letters."  These  letters,  twelve 
in  number,  have  been  said  to  contain  more  "  practical  and 
applied  political  philosophy  than  is  to  be  found  in  many 
elaborate  treatises."  To  most  Americans  they  became, 
until  the  beginning  of  the  war,  a  genuine  political  text- 
book, and  their  maxims  were  received  with  absolute  con- 
fidence. Like  the  writings  of  Burke,  which  they  greatly 
resemble,  they  form  a  great  storehouse  of  political  wisdom 


I0         LIFE  AND   CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON. 

with  reference  to  the  fundamental  questions  that  were 
occupying  the  attention  of  Americans  and  Englishmen  at 
the  time  of  their  publication.  After  the  series  was  com- 
plete, they  were  collected  and  published  by  Richard  Henry 
Lee,  of  Virginia,  by  Benjamin  Franklin  in  Dublin,  and 
at  about  the  same  time  were  published  in  Paris.  Benjamin 
Franklin,  Dickinson's  ancient  and  continued  enemy,  him- 
self secured  their  publication  in  Dublin  and  Paris.  There 
were  also  two  editions  printed  in  Boston. 

These  letters  were  received  with  enthusiasm  throughout 
the  colonies,  and  the  "  Pennsylvania  Farmer"  found  him- 
self looked  upon  as  the  foremost  patriot  of  America. 

About  this  time  the  first  cargoes  of  tea  arrived  in  the 
colonies  since  the  passage  of  the  bill  taxing  tea  in  America, 
and  it  is  interesting  to  know  that  the  citizens  of  Philadel- 
phia held  a  meeting,  at  which  Dr.  Thomas  Cadwalader 
presided  and  Dickinson  took  a  prominent  part,  to  take 
steps  to  prevent  the  landing  of  tea  in  Philadelphia,  seven- 
teen days  before  the  similar  meeting  was  held  in  Boston 
which  preceded  the  famous  Boston  tea-party.  Such  drastic 
measures  as  were  resorted  to  in  Boston  were  not,  however, 
found  necessary  in  Philadelphia. 

Mr.  Dickinson  suffered  from  the  position  he  took  in 
the  Pennsylvania  Assembly  upon  the  question  of  the  Pro- 
prietary charter,  and  at  the  expiration  of  his  term  was 
not  re-elected.  After  devoting  his  leisure  to  study  and 
reflection,  the  results  of  which  are  seen  in  the  "  Farmer's 
Letters,"  he  became  again  a  member  of  Assembly  in  1771. 
On  the  5th  of  March  of  this  year,  at  the  request  of  the 


LIFE  AND    CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON.          j  i 

Assembly,  he  drafted  a  petition  to  the  king,  which  was 
unanimously  adopted.  The  petition,  which  is  in  the  tone 
of  the  most  loyal  devotion  to  the  Crown,  asks  that  the 
people  of  Pennsylvania  may  be  restored  to  the  condition 
they  were  in  before  1763. 

In  the  mean  time,  in  1770,  Dickinson  had  been  married 
to  Miss  Mary  Norris,  the  only  daughter  of  Isaac  Norris, 
for  many  years  Speaker  of  the  Pennsylvania  Assembly,  but 
then  deceased,  and  with  his  wife  resided  at  Fairhill,  the 
beautiful  country  home  of  the  Norris  family,  where  was 
collected  one  of  the  finest  libraries  in  America.  Dickinson 
was  married  on  July  19,  and  the  only  wedding-tour  we 
can  find  any  record  of  began  some  time  in  September, 
the  itinerary  of  the  journey  touching  Reading,  Bethlehem, 
Lancaster,  York,  and  the  frontier  town  of  Carlisle,  being, 
in  fact,  a  tour  of  Pennsylvania.  Let  us  stop  to  quote 
from  a  letter  written  by  Dickinson  to  an  aunt  during 
the  journey,  dated  September  20,  1770. 

Among  other  things  he  says,  "  We  dined  at  Pottsgrove, 
and  among  memorable  things  it  may  be  put  down  as 
one,  that  after  proper  respect  paid  to  a  beefsteak,  somebody 
desired  an  egg  to  be  poached.  It  may  also  be  added  as 
another  remarkable  fact  that  yesterday  completed  two 
months  of  marriage  without  a  quarrel.  .  .  .  To-morrow 
we  proceed  for  Carlisle,  which  I  expect  to  reach  on  Satur- 
day." This  journey,  however,  had  a  double  purpose.  It 
was  not  known  what  position  the  German  and  Scotch-Irish 
inhabitants  of  Pennsylvania  would  take  upon  the  question 
of  resistance  to  the  English  Parliament,  and  Dickinson 


I2         LIFE  AND   CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON. 

desired  to  sound  them  on  this  point.  It  is  needless  to 
say  that  he  found  them  all  the  stanchest  patriots. 

As  the  hour  approached  when  the  fate  of  America  was 
to  be  tried,  Dickinson,  with  the  wise  conservatism  of  a 
man  bred  to  the  law  and  learned  in  the  classics,  having 
ever  before  him  the  precedents  of  history,  began  to  shrink 
from  the  advanced  course  taken  by  the  patriots  of  New 
England.  He  refused  to  endorse  the  measures  of  Massa- 
chusetts. He  did  not  think  America  in  the  best  condition 
for  revolution  at  that  time.  Consequently  in  New  England 
he  fell  from  the  high  estate  in  the  popular  estimation  that 
once  he  held,  and,  instead  of  the  greatest  American  pa- 
triot, was  called  "  timid"  and  "  apathetic." 

He  was  chosen  a  delegate  from  Pennsylvania  to  the  first 
Congress  in  1774,  and  was  immediately  placed  upon  a 
committee  to  draft  a  petition  to  the  king,  which  he  did 
personally,  as  well  as  a  subsequent  petition  to  the  king 
passed  at  the  next  Congress.  These  petitions  rank  among 
the  other  state  papers  prepared  by  Dickinson,  and  he,  in 
fact,  was  the  author  of  practically  all  of  the  many  issued 
by  Congress  during  this  period,  whose  ample  eulogium 
is  the  tribute  paid  to  them  by  Lord  Chatham  when  he 
said  in  the  House  of  Lords,  "  History,  my  Lords,  has 
been  my  favorite  study,  and  in  the  celebrated  writings 
of  antiquity  I  have  often  admired  the  patriotism  of 
Greece  and  Rome,  but  I  must  declare  and  vow  that  in 
the  master  states  of  the  world  I  know  not  the  people 
nor  the  Senate  who,  in  such  a  complication  of  difficult 
circumstances,  can  stand  in  preference  to  the  Delegates 


I  .      i      :  I '     '  .' •  rjj      | « :n!.  Ji»i(i; .;      {j. 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER    OF  JOHA   DICKINSON.          13 

of  America  assembled  in  General  Congress  at  Philadel- 
phia." 

Mr.  Dickinson  was  also  the  author  of  the  "  Declaration 
announcing  to  the  World  our  reasons  for  taking  up  arms 
against  England." 

We  are  now  approaching  the  period  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  It  was  becoming  apparent  that  the  great 
object  of  Samuel  Adams  (Judas  Iscariot,  as  Edward 
Tilghman  called  him)  and  the  New  England  delegates 
in  Congress  was  to  precipitate  open  hostilities  with  Eng- 
land and  secure  the  independence  of  the  colonies.  This 
the  delegates  from  Pennsylvania,  led  by  Dickinson,  op- 
posed, and  with  them,  at  first,  were  the  delegates  from 
the  Southern  and  Middle  colonies  generally;  but  gradu- 
ally the  independence  party  gained  strength  until  a  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  was  drafted  and  proposed.  The 
continued  oppression  of  the  New  England  colonists  and 
the  sending  of  troops  to  New  York  strengthened  the  inde- 
pendence party,  but  at  no  time,  either  before  or  after  the 
discussion  of  the  proposed  Declaration,  had  they  enough 
votes  in  Congress  to  adopt  the  resolution,  until  Dickinson, 
seeing  that  the  sentiment  of  a  majority  of  the  people 
appeared  to  be  in  favor  of  independence,  together  with 
his  friend,  Robert  Morris,  afterwards  the  financier  of  the 
Revolution,  absented  himself  from  Congress  and  allowed 
the  vote  to  be  taken.  Unlike  many  of  his  colleagues  who, 
with  him,  opposed  the  measure,  he  did  not  stay  and  vote 
or  afterwards  sign  the  Declaration,  but  with  an  honest 
consistency  characteristic  of  the  man  and  mindful  of  his 


I4         LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF  JOHN  DICKINSON. 

family  motto,  "  to  be  rather  than  to  seem,"  he  even  re- 
fused to  sit  as  a  figure  in  the  famous  picture  painted  by 
Trumbull  of  the  "  Signing  of  the  Declaration."  Giving, 
as  his  reason,  that  he  did  not  sign  it,  did  not  at  the  time 
approve  it,  and  had  no  share  in  the  glory  of  the  act  of 
signing  it.  Dickinson's  position  in  this  matter  brought 
upon  him  the  odium  of  all  the  advanced  revolutionists 
in  the  country. 

During  the  severe  trial  of  the  long  debate  in  Congress 
on  this  vital  question,  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  Dickin- 
son, whose  views  in  regard  to  the  inopportune  time  which 
had  been  chosen  for  a  final  separation  were  well  known, 
should  have  been  regarded  by  his  fellow-members  with  un- 
diminished  trust  and  confidence.  Special  pains  seem  to 
have  been  taken  to  meet  his  objections,  which  were  chiefly 
twofold, — the  want  of  unity  among  the  colonies,  and  the 
want  of  foreign  allies.  For  over  a  year  before  the  Decla- 
ration, and  after  that  time  until  the  persecutions  of  his 
political  enemies  drove  him  into  retirement,  Dickinson,  as 
colonel  of  the  first  battalion  of  the  Pennsylvania  Asso- 
ciators,  a  State  military  organization,  was  under  arms; 
being  among  the  first  to  promote  the  idea  of  arming  to 
resist  British  oppression,  and,  rather  than  "  tame,"  "  spirit- 
less," and  "  apathetic,"  as  his  enemies  called  him,  there 
are  but  few  who,  after  studying  his  career,  will  not  agree 
with  Hildreth,  the  historian,  in  thinking  that  his  course 
with  respect  to  the  Declaration  exhibited  the  "  noblest 
proof  of  moral  courage  ever  shown  by  a  public  man  in 
the  history  of  the  country." 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON.          ^ 

The  public  life  of  Mr.  Dickinson  was  eclipsed,  but  not 
extinguished,  by  the  attitude  .he  assumed  in  regard  to  the 
Declaration  of  Independence. 

Through  the  machinations  of  his  enemies  he  was  forced 
to  resign  from  the  army,  and  retired  into  private  life  on 
his  farm  near  Dover,  in  Kent  County,  Delaware.  Imme- 
diately, almost,  the  Delaware  Assembly  elected  him  to 
Congress,  November  5,  1776,  but  he  absolutely  refused 
to  serve,  without  assigning  a  reason.  After  remaining 
on  his  plantation  enjoying  the  cultured  friendship  of  such 
men  as  the  Ridgeleys  and  Rodneys  in  Kent  County,  Dick- 
inson re-entered  the  army  as  a  private  soldier  in  Captain 
Lewis's  company  of  the  Delaware  militia,  and  fought 
through  the  Brandywine  campaign,  after  which  he  was 
commissioned  a  Brigadier-General  by  Governor  McKean, 
of  Pennsylvania.  In  1779  Dickinson  was  unanimously 
elected  to  Congress  by  Delaware,  in  1780  he  was  elected 
to  the  Delaware  Assembly  from  New  Castle  County,  and 
the  same  year  was  elected  President  of  Delaware.  In  1782 
he  was  elected  President  of  the  Supreme  Executive  Coun- 
cil of  Pennsylvania,  therefore  being  at  the  same  time  Gov- 
ernor of  Delaware,  Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  and  mem- 
ber of  Congress  from  Delaware.  But  times  have  changed. 
Pennsylvania  no  longer  has  to  come  to  Delaware  to  bor- 
row a  governor.  As  President  of  the  Supreme  Executive 
Council  of  Pennsylvania,  Dickinson  was  ex  officio  Chief 
Justice  of  the  High  Court  of  Appeals,  and  as  such,  asso- 
ciated with  the  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court ;  he  delivered 
in  1785,  among  other  opinions,  one  in  an  important  cause, 


!6         LIFE  AND   CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON. 

— viz.,  Talbot  vs.  The  Achilles  et  al.,  reported  in  i  Dallas, 
and  involving  important  questions  of  Admiralty  juris- 
diction. 

Thus  this  man  whom  two  States  vied  with  each  other 
in  honoring  was,  at  the  same  time,  the  chief  executive 
officer  in  them  both,  the  highest  judicial  officer  in  one 
and  a  member  of  the  highest  legislative  body  in  the  coun- 
try from  the  other,  a  combination  of  the  legislative,  execu- 
tive, and  judicial  powers  hardly  compatible  with  the  Con- 
stitution which  Dickinson  himself  subsequently  helped  to 
make. 

When  in  September,  1786,  in  pursuance  to  the  invi- 
tation of  the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  the  Commissioners 
appointed  by  the  various  States  assembled  at  Annapolis 
to  devise  a  method  of  forming  a  more  perfect  union  of 
the  colonies,  John  Dickinson,  a  Commissioner  from  Dela- 
ware, was  chosen  president  of  the  meeting.  This  meeting 
being  ineffective,  Dickinson  was  a  delegate  from  the  same 
State  in  the  convention,  subsequently  held,  which  framed 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  His  eminent  fit- 
ness for  this  work  must  have  been  apparent,  bringing  as 
he  did  to  that  body  a  broader  knowledge  and  insight  into 
English  constitutional  law  than  any  other  man  on  this 
continent  could  have  done,  and  being  in  point  of  diplo- 
matic and  political  experience  the  peer  of  any  member. 
He  took  a  very  prominent  position  among  those  early 
American  sages  who  builded  a  fabric  the  enduring  utility 
and  symmetrical  adaptation  of  which  they  could  in  no 
sense  have  conceived  of,  and,  I  think  we  may  say,  if 


LIFE  AND    CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON.          ^ 

they  had  been  spared  here  for  a  century  and  a  quarter 
longer,  the  apparent  elasticity  of  which  would  have  sur- 
prised them. 

After  the  submission  of  the  Constitution  to  the  States 
for  ratification,  Dickinson  wrote  and  published  a  series 
of  essays  in  the  form  of  nine  letters  signed  Fabius,  where 
he  appears  as  an  ardent  champion  of  the  ratification  of 
the  Constitution.  These  essays  did  not  treat  the  features 
of  the  Constitution  in  the  profound  and  argumentative 
manner  in  which  the  Federalist  did;  they  were  probably 
designed  for  a  more  popular  audience,  but  they  had  great 
influence,  and  did  much  to  secure  the  ratification  of  that 
remarkable  instrument. 

Politically,  Mr.  Dickinson  became  attached  to  what  was 
known  in  that  day  as  the  Republican  party,  in  this  the 
Democratic  party.  He  was  a  State's  rights  man  and  a 
warm  friend  and  adviser  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  He  was, 
in  fact,  looked  upon  generally  as  one  of  the  political  sages 
of  the  period,  and  his  advice  was  often  sought  in  difficult 
matters.  In  1805,  during  the  discussion  of  the  proposed 
purchase  of  Louisiana  and  Florida,  the  advice  of  Dickin- 
son was  sought  by  Senator  Logan,  of  Pennsylvania.  On 
the  1 9th  of  December  Dickinson  replies  in  a  letter,  a 
quotation  from  which  perhaps  the  times  justify,  as  dis- 
closing the  writer's  feeling  upon  the  question  of  the 
acquisition  of  new  territory  by  the  United  States.  He 
says, — 

"  To  rush  into  war  at  this  time  for  the  wilderness  be- 
yond the  river  Mexicano,  or  on  the  remote  waters  of  the 


!8         LIFE  AND   CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON. 

Missouri,  would  be,  in  my  opinion,  madness.  We  want 
them  not.  We  can  hereafter  have  as  much  territory  as  we 
ought  to  desire.  Nothing  is  so  likely  to  prevent  acquisi- 
tions as  the  seeking  of  them  too  eagerly,  unreasonably,  and 
contemptuously.  In  the  natural  course  of  things  we  shall, 
if  wise,  gradually  become  irresistible,  and  the  people  will 
sink  into  our  population.  Let  us  patiently  wait  for  this 
inevitable  progression,  and  not  deprive  ourselves  of  the 
golden  eggs  that  will  be  laid  for  us  by  destroying  in  a 
covetous  and  cruel  frenzy  the  bird  that,  if  left  to  itself, 
will  from  day  to  day  supply  them." 

It  is  natural  to  suppose  that  a  man  who  was  so  deeply 
indebted  to  literature  as  Mr.  Dickinson,  and  whose  life 
had  been  so  sedulously  devoted  to  the  application  of  its 
inestimable  riches  to  the  service  of  his  country,  would 
not,  among  his  many  benefactions,  overlook  education, 
the  mainspring  of  republican  greatness  and  stability. 
While  President  of  Pennsylvania,  he  conceived  the  idea 
of  establishing  a  college  west  of  the  Susquehanna,  then 
the  frontier  of  the  colony.  Consequently,  with  Dr.  Ben- 
jamin Rush  and  other  friends,  he  secured  the  passage  of 
an  Act  of  Assembly  incorporating  what  the  Assembly 
insisted  upon  naming  Dickinson  College,  "  In  Memory," 
as  the  Act  says,  "  of  the  great  and  important  services  ren- 
dered to  his  Country  by  his  Excellency  John  Dickinson, 
Esq."  Mr.  Dickinson  gave  to  the  new  college  a  plan- 
tation in  Adams  County  of  three  hundred  acres,  and  one 
in  Cumberland  County  of  two  hundred  acres,  and  all 
the  books  saved  from  the  library  of  his  father-in-law, 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON.          ig 

Isaac  Norris,  the  Speaker,  at  the  burning  of  Fair-Hill 
by  the  British  during  the  Revolution,  in  all  about  fifteen 
hundred  volumes. 

After  the  expiration  of  his  term  as  President  of  Penn- 
sylvania, Dickinson  went  back  to  Delaware  to  live,  and 
located  permanently  at  Wilmington,  where  he  built  a  fine 
mansion  at  Eighth  and  Market  Streets,  upon  the  site  now 
fittingly  occupied  by  the  Wilmington  Free  Library  build- 
ing. Here,  retired  from  the  toil  and  anxieties  of  a  public 
life,  enjoying  an  affluent  fortune,  surrounded  by  friends 
who  loved  him,  and  by  books  which,  to  him,  were  a  con- 
stant source  of  consolation,  he  spent  the  concluding  years 
of  his  life,  dispensing  among  others  the  blessings  which 
he  enjoyed  himself,  and  receiving  in  return  the  heartfelt 
tribute  of  popular  veneration. 

He  died  on  the  I4th  of  February,  1808,  at  the  age  of 
seventy-five. 

In  a  life  of  such  manifold  and  varied  activities,  it  is 
usually  difficult  to  determine  which  of  its  policies  and 
achievements  are  most  characteristic  and  most  important. 
In  the  career  of  Dickinson,  however,  there  appear  to  be 
two  periods  when  his  most  important  work  was  done. 

To  the  successful  prosecution  of  the  war  of  indepen- 
dence the  power  of  the  pen  was  almost  as  essential  as 
that  of  the  sword.  To  arouse  and  sustain  a  spirit  of 
resistance,  to  give  to  the  proclamations,  addresses,  and 
resolutions  of  Congress  a  tone  becoming  the  dignity  of 
that  body,  and  the  destiny  of  the  country,  and  to  command 
the  respect  and  secure  the  support  of  the  enlightened  in 


20         LIFE  AND   CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON. 

Europe,  required  genius  and  cultivation  of  the  highest 
order  and  the  most  commanding  influence.  In  this  de- 
partment of  the  patriotic  contest  none  surpassed  the  sub- 
ject of  this  paper. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  the  fact  that  almost  no 
students  from  the  New  England  colonies  were  entered 
at  the  English  Inns  of  Court  prior  to  the  Revolution,  al- 
though all  the  colonies  were  governed  mainly  by  the  same 
English  common  law.  The  cause  of  their  absence  is  of 
course  referable  to  the  peculiar  circumstances  under  which 
the  New  Englanders  left  England  and  to  their  religious 
beliefs.  To  this  fact,  that  the  New  England  lawyers  had 
not  the  solid  training  in  English  law  and  politics  which 
could  at  that  time  be  gotten  only  in  England  herself,  we 
think,  are  to  be  ascribed  the  difference  in  the  positions 
maintained  by  the  New  England  colonies  and  the  other 
colonies  during  the  pre-Revolutionary  controversy. 

In  Massachusetts,  the  leading  colony  in  New  England, 
the  government  was  essentially  a  theocracy  up  to  the 
time  of  the  Revolution.  In  New  England  generally  the 
clergy  directed  the  course  of  public  opinion  and  of  the 
movement  looking  to  the  resistance  of  the  English  Parlia- 
ment. What,  then,  was  their  position?  They  disdained 
to  argue  that  Parliament  and  the  ministry  were  exceeding 
their  authority,  or  that  their  acts  were  wholly  unjustified 
by  the  English  theory  of  colonial  law  or  by  the  precedents 
and  practice  under  it;  they  refused  to  rest  their  case 
upon  the  allegation  that  the  acts  complained  of  were  mere 
violations  of  positive  written  law,  or  even  the  provisions 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON.         2I 

of  their  own  charters;  but  they  conceived  their  rights  to 
rest  upon  something  above  and  beyond  English  law.  They 
claimed  that  they  possessed  certain  natural  rights,  founded, 
as  they  asserted,  on  the  principles  of  what  was  called  nat- 
ural equity.  They  forgot  their  own  traditions,  and,  dis- 
regarding all  their  responsibility  as  members  of  a  civil 
society,  they  relied  upon  what  the  French  afterwards,  in 
their  frenzy,  called  the  rights  of  man.  Upon  this  line, 
then,  the  New  England  colonies  acted,  desiring  from  the 
beginning  complete  independence.  The  Middle  and  South- 
ern colonies,  however,  led  by  Dickinson,  bounded  the  hori- 
zon of  their  position  by  the  legal  aspects  of  the  situation. 
They  looked  at  the  dispute  with  Great  Britain  as  mainly 
a  legal  question,  and  that  up  to  the  period  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  it  might  be  settled  as  any  other  legal 
questions  were,  if  not  by  a  judicial  tribunal,  then  by  an 
appeal  to  legal  principles  recognized  in  common  by  both 
the  mother  country  and  the  colonies  as  the  outgrowth 
of  English  history  and  traditions.  In  extremity,  English 
precedents  pointed  them  to  armed  resistance,  but  not  to 
rebellion  or  separation.  They  would  coerce  the  mother 
country  by  an  appeal  to  law  and  to  reason  to  yield  to  the 
requisitions  of  freedom  and  of  justice. 

John  Dickinson  then,  with  his  pen  and  voice,  was  the 
champion  of  constitutional  resistance,  adapting  the  bril- 
liant theories  of  Montesquieu  to  the  conditions  of  the 
colonies,  tapping  all  the  abundant  resources  of  his  wide 
learning,  experience,  and  splendid  intellect  to  inculcate 
into  the  colonists  those  immortal  principles  of  constitu- 


22         LIFE  AND   CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON. 

tional  liberty  and  civil  freedom  that  made  possible  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

This  was  Dickinson's  great  pre-Revolutionary  work. 
"  For  who  are  a  free  people  ?"  he  asks.  "  Not  those  over 
whom  government  is  reasonably  and  equitably  exercised, 
but  those  who  live  under  a  government  so  constitutionally 
checked  and  controlled  that  proper  provision  is  made 
-against  its  being  otherwise  exercised."  Has  there  ever 
been  a  clearer  definition  of  constitutional  rule?  And, 
withal,  his  contentions  were  maintained  with  such  un- 
answerable logical  skill  and  nice  discrimination,  and  his 
arguments  set  down  in  such  a  matchless  classical  style, 
as  to  attract  the  attention  and  win  the  support  of  many 
of  the  foremost  men  of  Europe. 

The  other  most  enduring  work  of  the  subject  of  this 
sketch  was  accomplished  in  the  Convention  which  framed 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  The  most  serious 
controversy  in  the  Convention  arose  between  the  delegates 
of  the  larger  and  those  of  the  smaller  States  in  regard  to 
the  number  of  the  representatives  which  should  be  sent  by 
each  to  the  national  Congress,  and  upon  what  basis  they 
were  to  be  elected.  Various  plans  were  proposed.  The 
large  majority  of  the  delegates  were  evidently  in  favor 
of  proportional  representation,  while  those  from  the  smaller 
States,  feeling  that  by  the  adoption  of  such  a  plan  they 
would  be  crushed  or  their  influence  wholly  destroyed, 
refused,  even  at  the  risk  of  losing  a  national  government, 
to  consent  to  it.  In  fact,  the  delegates  from  Delaware 
had  been  instructed  to  withdraw  from  the  Convention  if 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON.         23 

any  change  in  the  existing  rule  of  suffrage,  giving  one 
vote  to  each  State,  should  be  adopted.  Mr.  Dickinson, 
as  representing  Delaware,  was  foremost  in  the  contro- 
versy. His  great  object  was  to  insure  an  equal  representa- 
tion of  each  State  in  the  Senate,  thus  placing  there  at 
least  the  smaller  States  on  a  footing  of  equality  with  the 
larger.  The  Convention  decided  unanimously,  on  the  7th 
of  June,  1787,  on  the  motion  of  Mr.  Dickinson,  that  the 
members  of  that  body  should  be  chosen,  two  for  each 
State,  by  its  Legislature.  The  enduring  usefulness  of  this 
novel  feature  of  the  Constitution  is  ample  testimony  of 
its  wisdom.  It  needs  no  eulogy  from  these  pages;  its 
continued  influence  through  an  efflux  of  over  a  hundred 
years  has  established  its  position  as  one  of  the  strongest 
features  of  that  immortal  document  of  which  it  is  a  part. 
If  the  Senate  is  the  permanent  and  conservative  force  in 
our  system,  we  should  not  forget,  as  we  are  apt  to  do, 
to  whose  influence  we  are  indebted  for  the  introduction 
into  it  of  this  rare  invention  of  state-craft. 

Let  us  refer  again,  briefly,  before  bringing  this  paper 
to  a  close,  to  Dickinson's  position  with  regard  to  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  His  name  has  never  been 
associated  with  it;  nor  does  it  appear  that  he  ever  re- 
canted the  opinion  which  he  had  expressed  of  its  propriety ; 
although  he  not  merely  acquiesced  in  it,  but  engaged  with 
his  accustomed  zeal  and  assiduity  in  preparing  and  carry- 
ing into  effect  the  measures  necessary  to  sustain  it.  How- 
ever much  we  may  regret  that  his  name  is  not  enrolled  on 
that  instrument,  which  is  now  the  pride  and  boast  of 


24         LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF  JOHN  DICKINSON. 

every  American,  it  would  not  only  be  uncharitable,  but 
it  would  be  wantonly  to  dim  the  lustre  of  one  of  the 
brightest  of  the  Revolutionary  luminaries,  to  suspect  the 
purity  of  his  motives,  or  to  diminish  the  gratitude  of  the 
country  to  him.  The  reasons  he  gave  for  his  position 
bear  testimony  to  his  wise  prudence  and  foresight.  He 
was  right  in  holding  that  the  colonies  were  not  united 
or  prepared,  and  his  policy  gave  opportunity  for  the  or- 
ganization of  the  colonial  militia,  which  scarcely  existed 
at  the  beginning  of  the  controversy.  The  soundness  of 
his  doctrine  of  the  necessity  of  foreign  alliance  was  amply 
vindicated  by  the  effect  made  upon  the  struggle  by  the 
open  espousal  of  our  cause  by  the  French.  In  fact,  the 
occasion  was  one  in  which  the  righteousness  of  the  cause 
outweighed  the  hesitation  of  prudence,  but  yet  the  prudent 
man  cannot  be  blamed  for  the  policies  which  his  wisdom 
dictated. 

As  there  was  no  deficiency  of  men  prepared  and  anx- 
ious to  press  the  Revolutionary  car  on  to  its  goal,  it  was 
fortunate  for  the  country  that  Congress  possessed  one 
man  of  the  peculiar  constitution  of  John  Dickinson;  for 
through  his  instrumentality,  whilst  they  were  rushing  with 
-a  patriotic  impetuousness  into  the  midst  of  a  sanguinary 
revolution,  and  their  country  was  rapidly  bursting  its  fet- 
ters and  rising  into  national  existence,  their  cause  was 
invested  with  dignity,  moderation,  and  firmness;  their 
motives  were  exhibited  in  a  condition  of  purity;  and  the 
holy  principles  of  civil  liberty,  which  they  were  struggling 
to  sustain,  were  promulgated  to  the  world  with  a  force 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON.         2$ 

and  clearness  which  commanded  the  respect  of  the  civilized 
world,  and  have  commended  the  conflict  to  the  nations 
of  the  earth  as  an  example  which  has  been  gazed  at  with 
admiration. 

Mr.  Dickinson  has  been  charged  with  advocating  a  timid 
policy,  inconsistent  with  the  spirit  which  became  the  great 
cause  in  which  he  had  embarked,  but  nothing  of  the  sort 
appears  in  his  writings.  Although  he  did  orally  advise 
Congress  to  pursue  a  less  daring  course  than  that  which 
was  successfully  adopted,  when  he  wielded  the  pen  he  in- 
variably made  Congress  speak  in  a  manner  that  became 
its  dignity,  fearlessness,  and  exalted  position,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  world  and  of  after  ages.  After  the  Declaration 
he  supported  his  associates  in  the  execution  of  their  most 
energetic  measures,  and  devoted  an  undivided  affection  to 
the  cause  of  his  country,  no  matter  by  whom  or  in  what 
manner  directed.  "  Two  rules  I  have  laid  down  for  my- 
self throughout  this  contest,"  said  he  on  an  important 
occasion  in  Congress,  in  1779,  "  to  which  I  have  con- 
stantly adhered,  and  still  design  to  adhere.  First,  on  all 
occasions  where  I  am  called  upon,  as  a  trustee  for  my 
countrymen,  to  deliberate  on  questions  important  to  their 
happiness,  disdaining  all  personal  advantages  to  be  de- 
rived from  a  suppression  of  my  real  sentiments,  and  de- 
fying all  dangers  to  be  risked  by  a  declaration  of  them, 
openly  to  avow  them ;  and,  secondly,  after  thus  discharging 
this  duty,  whenever  the  public  resolutions  are  taken,  to 
regard  them,  though  opposite  to  my  opinion,  as  sacred, 
because  they  lead  to  public  measures  in  which  the  common 


26         LIFE  AND   CHARACTER    OF  JOHN  DICKINSON. 

weal  must  be  interested,  and  to  join  in  supporting  them, 
as  earnestly  as  if  my  voice  had  been  given  for  them.  .  .  . 
If  the  present  day  is  too  warm  for  me  to  be  calmly  judged, 
I  can  credit  my  country  for  justice  some  years  hence." 

Such  was  John  Dickinson,  and  I  would  that  we  had  more 
public  men  to-day  imbued  with  so  lofty  a  spirit  of  pa- 
triotism. 


'30  p. 


3  1205  02655  3824 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


Series  9482 


